Dikili

With Troy to the north and Ephesus to the south, the classical ancient city of Pergamon is located some 16 miles inland from the Aegean Sea on a promontory that looms above the modern Turkish city of Bergama. Thanks to its strategic location it was rebuilt repeatedly throughout antiquity but experienced its heyday in the Hellenistic period, in the second century BC after Alexander the Great had wrested Pergamon from Persian rule. As the Kingdom of Pergamon under the successor Attalid dynasty, the city became a center for culture, health and the arts and was described as “the most famous and magnificent city of Asia Minor” by Plinius Secundus, the first-century AD author and philosopher. For a time, it had the world’s biggest library and a flourishing trade in parchment (the word actually comes from the name Pergamon) and spectacular sculptures dazzled locals and travelers of yore alike. While there are remnants from different eras, the most spectacular ruins date to the reign of the Attalid ruler Eumenes II, who oversaw such works such as the Library of Pergamon and Altar of Zeus during his reign, from 197 to 159 BC. The vast site consists of some 220 acres centered on an acropolis that rises nearly 1,100 feet (335 meters). There are also ruins of the lower city and the famous Asklepion healing sanctuary.

The ruins of the celebrated Asklepion sanctuary of health and healing lie at the foot of the acropolis, about three kilometers or two miles south of the promontory. Pergamon’s Askeplion (also spelled as Asclepieon) was renowned in the ancient world; Asclepius was the mythical son of Apollo and a god of medicine and healing. The “doctors” at the sanctuary were really his priests, who cured patients with a mix of thermal water baths, a special diet, exercise, and music. Excavations date the construction of the temple complex to the 4th century BC, but it mainly flourished during the Roman period, thanks to the efforts of Hadrian who added the colonnaded Sacred Way that led to the Askleopion’s entrance gate, or Propylon. Beyond it were the main circular temple (once domed like the Pantheon in Rome) and rooms for massages and mud baths, plus a trio of fountains, all connected by ornate porticoes. A theater seated 3,500 spectators. One of the most fascinating elements of the Asklepion is The Sacred Tunnel, a 266-foot long passage that leads from the center of the sanctuary to a mysterious two-story round brick building from the Roman era, a time when the accomplished physician Galen worked at Pergamon. Some believe the tunnel, which was surrounded by shrines to other gods of healing like Hygiea and Apollo, may have helped induce dreams of Asclepius, whose appearance in a patient’s dream could then be interpreted by the resident priests to help guide the healing process.